“Of course I worry about whitewashing and I feel very strongly that whitewashing was, is and continues to be a problem in entertainment,” says Kalogridis, who was herself critical of Johansson’s casting. “And I wanted as much as possible to try and mitigate those concerns. But I want to be really clear that I can’t be the arbiter of whether or not I succeeded. The audience will have to see how they feel about it.”“Of course I worry about whitewashing and I feel very strongly that whitewashing was, is and continues to be a problem in entertainment,” says Kalogridis, who was herself critical of Johansson’s casting. “And I wanted as much as possible to try and mitigate those concerns. But I want to be really clear that I can’t be the arbiter of whether or not I succeeded. The audience will have to see how they feel about it.”

Which brings us to Altered Carbon, which came out Feb. 2 and could very well end up being the perfectly distilled international hit that Netflix desires (which also hooks an American audience, of course). Built on the scaffolding of border-crossing science fiction, Altered Carbon doesn’t quite have the ambitious note-perfect casting of Sense8, but even with a complicated sci-fi mythology, it’s better explained, less risky and more traditionally “sci-fi” in its Blade Runner-esque features, which might allow it to travel better.John